St. Joseph’s Day altars and Lenten fish fries are obvious symbols of New Orleanians’ faith. When I open my notebook to interview area cooks, however, less obvious expressions of that faith often emerge.

The Times-Picayune has diligently kept the public informed about the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center since its conceptual development in 1978, when the state Legislature was considering the feasibility of developing a modern convention center to replace the Rivergate.

The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has long been considered a “destination of choice” for events that bring world-leading innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists and technology and business leaders from all kinds of fields to the Crescent City.

I sat at a French Quarter bar watching floodwater creep in, when the familiar frenzied pinging of my phone started. The NOLA.com | Times-Picayune newsroom was shifting into high gear.

Ad Reporter was a daily column of blurbs about The Times-Picayune advertisers launched in 1981 by Advertising Director Bob O’Neill. It revived and updated a previously popular “Want Ad Reporter” column by Maud O’Brien.

Despite all The Times-Picayune’s rituals, it was sometimes hard to figure out exactly what was happening. It was impossible if you weren’t on a desk downtown.

New Orleans is a passionate sports town, and for two decades I had the best job in it. As The Times-Picayune’s lead sports columnist, I witnessed some of the greatest sporting events in New Orleans history.

This is the story of how we wrote the 2002 Times-Picayune series “Washing Away,” which set the stage for what would happen to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. For years, I had tried to convince my editors that we needed to explain to readers what would happen if a catastrophic hurricane hit New Orleans.

One of the many things I handled during my years at The Times-Picayune was the Loving Cup ceremony. Before I was more intimately involved, I thought this was just some award that was given to a well-known person in the community, to someone who knew a lot of people and sat on a lot of boards.

Two of my closest colleagues recently retired. Barbara LeBlanc had been at the Parenting Center/Children’s Hospital for over 40 years, and Priscilla Lawrence at The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) for almost 40.

July marks the 85th anniversary of Middendorf’s, the restaurant best known as the home of thin-cut fried catfish.

As visitors enter The Historic New Orleans Collection’s new welcome center at 520 Royal St., they’ll find something unique among its spaces: a seven-foot, three-dimensional touchscreen smart table, titled “French Quarter at Your Fingertips.”